Yes. At Christ the King Church, we're still using hymnals. Why is a church in 2024 planning to use hymnals? I promise we didn't find this idea in the church planting manuals. Let me make it sound even funnier.
Andy and I own hymnals digitally and highlight our favorite parts from our iPads and MacBooks. We've all been using an app on our phones to help us learn the songs. While planning services, I’ll be browsing the Google Sheet I made to help categorize the hymnal. So, the hymnal thing isn't from any Luddite impulse. We’ll have to lug these things up two flights of stairs each week! Why are we doing it? It's because we want to sing Psalms and historic songs together.
First, we want to sing Psalms and historic songs. It's a tragedy that the Psalter fell out of use among Christians. God wrote 150 songs, and his people have sung them for millennia. But we stopped singing them. Some are even embarrassed by the more robust of them (e.g., Psalm 3). Not us. We're coming to worship God the way he wants to be worshiped, and that includes the songs he likes.
“Any form of hymn or chorus singing that prevents the Church from learning all 150 psalms is profoundly wrong-headed.”1
It's also a tragedy, though not quite so great, that we've abandoned so many historic songs of our faith. How many of us even know the Gloria Patri? As we join our voices with the great cloud of witnesses to worship God, we will sing many of the same songs they did. If we're going to see a reformation of Christian culture so that God's people stand out like a city on a hill, we'll need songs that don't sound like everybody else. Songs that aren't from the shallow modern age. Songs that stood the test of centuries.
Second, we want to sing together. We don’t want to listen to the ultra-talented sing in corporate worship. We want to ascend in praise together to the God of our salvation. Hymnals put songs in a range where the congregation can actually sing along. They often use predictable melodies that are easy to learn and remember. They even provide specific directions for what harmonies to sing. No one ever forgets to switch the slide on a hymnal (or gets them out of order).
We aren't against new songs. Our hymnal has a few of the best from our generation. We are excited to sing psalms and hymns together—to dive into the Treasury for a few decades and see how our souls are shaped.
In his recent article, Andy describes why and how our church plans to use the Treasury of Psalms and Hymns. Give it a read, and buy your own copy of the Treasury. Then download "Sing Your Part," make an account, and join Christ the King Church in Stillwater in the app so that you can learn these songs right along with us.
God bless your worship!
Andy and I own hymnals digitally and highlight our favorite parts from our iPads and MacBooks. We've all been using an app on our phones to help us learn the songs. While planning services, I’ll be browsing the Google Sheet I made to help categorize the hymnal. So, the hymnal thing isn't from any Luddite impulse. We’ll have to lug these things up two flights of stairs each week! Why are we doing it? It's because we want to sing Psalms and historic songs together.
First, we want to sing Psalms and historic songs. It's a tragedy that the Psalter fell out of use among Christians. God wrote 150 songs, and his people have sung them for millennia. But we stopped singing them. Some are even embarrassed by the more robust of them (e.g., Psalm 3). Not us. We're coming to worship God the way he wants to be worshiped, and that includes the songs he likes.
“Any form of hymn or chorus singing that prevents the Church from learning all 150 psalms is profoundly wrong-headed.”1
It's also a tragedy, though not quite so great, that we've abandoned so many historic songs of our faith. How many of us even know the Gloria Patri? As we join our voices with the great cloud of witnesses to worship God, we will sing many of the same songs they did. If we're going to see a reformation of Christian culture so that God's people stand out like a city on a hill, we'll need songs that don't sound like everybody else. Songs that aren't from the shallow modern age. Songs that stood the test of centuries.
Second, we want to sing together. We don’t want to listen to the ultra-talented sing in corporate worship. We want to ascend in praise together to the God of our salvation. Hymnals put songs in a range where the congregation can actually sing along. They often use predictable melodies that are easy to learn and remember. They even provide specific directions for what harmonies to sing. No one ever forgets to switch the slide on a hymnal (or gets them out of order).
We aren't against new songs. Our hymnal has a few of the best from our generation. We are excited to sing psalms and hymns together—to dive into the Treasury for a few decades and see how our souls are shaped.
In his recent article, Andy describes why and how our church plans to use the Treasury of Psalms and Hymns. Give it a read, and buy your own copy of the Treasury. Then download "Sing Your Part," make an account, and join Christ the King Church in Stillwater in the app so that you can learn these songs right along with us.
God bless your worship!
1. Douglas Wilson, Cantus Christi 2020, vi.
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